[Fillipo Simone]

This is mind-blowing. There were reports yesterday claiming Berlusconi was furious after Sunday's defeat, saying "I understand the times when we used to win against Barcelona are gone, but it's unacceptable to lose against teams who have 5x lower budgets than ours". Then, today, he denied having said such things, and that he's close to the team and Inzaghi.

Source: Mediaset

WTF?! So, it's OK to lose against Sassuolo and Atalanta at home? I'm really pissed at this management for the way they take things nowadays. Yes, we're not the big Milan anymore blah blah blah, but there's a vast difference between winning the Serie A and the Champions, and being 8th in a crappy league by playing some atrocious football. We cannot be this bad! Where's the reaction? Even from the fans, there's no backlash, no reaction to this status quo that's bringing us down year by year. It's like we've accepted that we're a mid-table team. Gah!!!

Well, it's the same old tune for quite some time. Remember the days when we were sure (or almost sure) that Galliani was gone and that Barbara would step in? Soon this has been reduced to a co-habitation between the two, and now back to Galliani.

The club is simply unable to make changes or decisive moves, because so many people have their hands in it deep and their egos do not allow any fairness.

[Forza Milan!]

This is mind-blowing. There were reports yesterday claiming Berlusconi was furious after Sunday's defeat, saying "I understand the times when we used to win against Barcelona are gone, but it's unacceptable to lose against teams who have 5x lower budgets than ours". Then, today, he denied having said such things, and that he's close to the team and Inzaghi.

Source: Mediaset

WTF?! So, it's OK to lose against Sassuolo and Atalanta at home? I'm really pissed at this management for the way they take things nowadays. Yes, we're not the big Milan anymore blah blah blah, but there's a vast difference between winning the Serie A and the Champions, and being 8th in a crappy league by playing some atrocious football. We cannot be this bad! Where's the reaction? Even from the fans, there's no backlash, no reaction to this status quo that's bringing us down year by year. It's like we've accepted that we're a mid-table team. Gah!!!

Yup. We should be challenging for 3rd place, even with our reduced budget. Pippo has been a huge disappointment, but he is not at the root of the problem. Looks to me like we are doomed to mediocrity with B&G. Anyone still believe we have a "project" or a "grand plan"?

[Danny]

As much as Bertie and Gimrod have a part to play, we DO have a decent squad and Pippo has reduced it to a pile of shite.

95% of the blame for the woeful results this season is Pippo.

[X-Offender]

That's why we were blaming Allegri in the first place, wasn't it? Maybe we overestimate our players a bit, but even so, 26 points in 19 games is too little. The 3rd place is theoretically impossible because Juve, Roma and Napoli are better than us, but 4th and 5th place are totally within our reach, yet we are massively under-performing. Not to mention the ugly-@ss football we play. At least with Allegri in 12/13 we played like crap but still managed to get that 3rd spot (with a bit of luck and help from referees, that is).

If I were to describe Pippo's Milan in one word, it would be 'life-less'.

[Danny]

The day X off gives any kind of 'support' to Allegri is the day the earth stops spinning.

That day has happened.

[Fillipo Simone]

That's why we were blaming Allegri in the first place, wasn't it? Maybe we overestimate our players a bit, but even so, 26 points in 19 games is too little. The 3rd place is theoretically impossible because Juve, Roma and Napoli are better than us, but 4th and 5th place are totally within our reach, yet we are massively under-performing. Not to mention the ugly-@ss football we play. At least with Allegri in 12/13 we played like crap but still managed to get that 3rd spot (with a bit of luck and help from referees, that is).

If I were to describe Pippo's Milan in one word, it would be 'life-less'.

Well, at the beginning of the season some of us here said 3rd place should be reachable. Now we are 4th or 5th place chasers - but this is still a very much reachable goal, don't you think?

Allegri managed to get us 3rd but he had a better squad. I don't know what you guys expect, we have a toothless attack with a washed out Pazzini, Torres (now gone) and the never in-form SES. Much goes on Pippo and his insisting in the stupid wingers plus false 9 system, agreed.

But Allegri had matchwinners like Ibrahimović and Balotelli in his squad. Every 3rd or 4th match we played they would pull out a stunner and win games like Atalanta, Bologna, Siena, etc. by themselves.

One other thing is, both Seedorf and Inzaghi couldn't shake off the mentality Allegri and our management inflicted to the team. Seedorf was getting closer to the task, while Inzaghi seemingly goes along the stream and tries to build around such a small minded mentality.

Thing is, by sacking Inzaghi we won't achieve anything unless the management changes their approach. If Inzaghi goes, in comes - say Gattuso, Ambrosini or anyone who's prepared to take over and listen to Galliani and Berlu without much resistance.

[acid911]

One other thing is, both Seedorf and Inzaghi couldn't shake off the mentality Allegri and our management inflicted to the team. Seedorf was getting closer to the task, while Inzaghi seemingly goes along the stream and tries to build around such a small minded mentality.

Said it straight. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) Well put, and that's what most of us having been saying for a while now.

[Danny]

Allegri managed to get us 3rd but he had a better squad.

Really?

(IMG:http://s27.postimg.org/4vezi13r7/Untitle1d.png)

It's really not that different, and it doesn't have the likes of Bona, Alex, Lopez, Menez, Cerci, and Suso.

Indeed the best team there is arguably: Abbiati, Abate, Mexes, Zapata, MDS, De Jong, Flamini, Monto, Boateng, Balo & SES. And by the time he left (end of that season IIRC), Boateng was absolutely horrendous for us.

The one thing Allegri had was Balo during the peak of his career - January 2013 - summer that year. But for Balo those 6 months read Menez today.

I wouldn't say our current squad is any weaker. I'd say it's actually stronger. Two decent keepers, a glut of (in theory) decent CBs like Rami, Mexes, Alex, Zapata, a whole host of midfielders like Monto, De Jong, Van Ginkel, Jack, Essien, Muntari, and attackers like SES, Menez, Cerci, Pazzo etc.

I don't believe Allegri's squad was better at all. Same at best, weaker at worst.

[Forza Milan!]

Really?

(IMG:http://s27.postimg.org/4vezi13r7/Untitle1d.png)

It's really not that different, and it doesn't have the likes of Bona, Alex, Lopez, Menez, Cerci, and Suso.

Indeed the best team there is arguably: Abbiati, Abate, Mexes, Zapata, MDS, De Jong, Flamini, Monto, Boateng, Balo & SES. And by the time he left (end of that season IIRC), Boateng was absolutely horrendous for us.

The one thing Allegri had was Balo during the peak of his career - January 2013 - summer that year. But for Balo those 6 months read Menez today.

I wouldn't say our current squad is any weaker. I'd say it's actually stronger. Two decent keepers, a glut of (in theory) decent CBs like Rami, Mexes, Alex, Zapata, a whole host of midfielders like Monto, De Jong, Van Ginkel, Jack, Essien, Muntari, and attackers like SES, Menez, Cerci, Pazzo etc.

I don't believe Allegri's squad was better at all. Same at best, weaker at worst.

I agree that our squad is a little better than it was the last couple of years, at least on paper. With this squad, and with the current state of other Serie A teams, 3rd place should have been achievable this year. I agree that most of the blame for our pathetic results goes to Pippo. However, Pippo was selected by Galliani with Berlu's approval.

Pippo fits Galliani's objectives because he is unlikely to challenge the leadership or press for changes or heavy investments. Not sure why Berlu still goes along with Galliani (could be that it is too expensive to sack him, or maybe Berlu is just operating under some delusions of grandeur, or whatever). The point is that this situation dooms us to mediocrity, and I see no burning desire on B&G's part to change anything. (Beyond empty words.) And IMHO anyone that still believes present management has any "vision" or is doing anything more than fumbling around is smoking something bad.

[Fillipo Simone]

Balotelli was the difference maker, while SES and Pazzo were in-form strikers. Agreed, much upon the striker form falls on Pippo's sholders, but I'd still have Balo in our team any day over Menez.

[Danny]

Balotelli was the difference maker, while SES and Pazzo were in-form strikers. Agreed, much upon the striker form falls on Pippo's sholders, but I'd still have Balo in our team any day over Menez.

When both have the right attitude and actually show up, Menez is the better player. Balo had a 6 month peak which did carry us, I'm not denying that, but his form before that and since it is of a below average striker, not even an average one.

Menez, when off form, is an utter pain in the *rse, worse than Balo, but when he nails his form he does remarkable things Balo just can't.

[Forza Milan!]

When both have the right attitude and actually show up, Menez is the better player. Balo had a 6 month peak which did carry us, I'm not denying that, but his form before that and since it is of a below average striker, not even an average one.

Menez, when off form, is an utter pain in the *rse, worse than Balo, but when he nails his form he does remarkable things Balo just can't.

Would tend to agree, especially given Balo's flop at Liverpool. There may have been raw potential at some point, but nothing ever came out of it, and I doubt it he will do any better in the future.

[han2503]

I see we're back to discussing Allegri...

Let's face it, both him and Pippo are terrible coaches and man-managers. But at least Pippo has the rookie tag to bail him out

Allegri made a mess of this team, and Pippo is doing the same, simple as that.

No, our squad isn't that great, but we're playing in a sh!tty league that has only one viable option for champion, the other "top" teams (only by name), bar Roma are all on the same level as us. Napoli?; terrible, Inter; same, Milan; yep, also terrible.

As I said, at the start of the season, and I think Danny remembers this because he didn't think we could make it. Theoretically 3rd place should be up for grabs for any one of those 3 teams. All are equally inconsistent and have squads that are pretty much on par with each other.

We've seen that we can hold our own against these teams, when the players are focused and invested we can take points off anyone in this league. However, we're losing points regularly against sides on the bottom half of the table. If we were winning these games and lost points against Roma, Juve, Inter, Napoli and Fiorentina we'd still be in a much better position in the table than we currently are.

Oh and 3rd with Allegri, we were in a horrible position to begin with because of him, sure we made a fight back, but let's not kid ourselves, we were being awarded a penalty virtually every other week and even on the last day when were were seemingly doing everything we could to shoot ourselves in the foot we needed the ref to step in and help us out. Allegri was the root cause of our on-field issues then, just like Pippo is now

[X-Offender]

It's déjà vu all over again...

[Danny]

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